High school shortstop/second baseman Kyler Murray tweeted today that he is withdrawing from the MLB draft. Murray was ranked 32nd in this year’s draft class by ESPN’s Keith Law, 34th by MLB.com and 15th by Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs. Rather than enter the draft, Murray will instead head to Texas A&M not only as a highly touted baseball recruit, but also as one of the nation’s top quarterback recruits.
As Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill notes, Murray is expected to compete to be the Aggies’ starter. Multiple reports have noted that a shoulder injury which limited Murray to DH for much of the year made him tough to peg, but the consensus appears to be that he had a shot to go in the first round and, had he been committed solely to baseball, perhaps quite high up in the first round.
Of note is that Murray is not merely telling teams not to draft him, as Josh Bell did in 2011 before signing with the Pirates for $5MM. Rather, he has completely removed himself from the draft pool, as McDaniel tweets, meaning that he will not be eligible to be selected by any club. Murray will likely be eligible for the 2018 draft following his junior season, provided he does not shift his focus entirely to football.
Thanks for explaining things on that last paragraph. I was about to ask if a Josh Bell situation was possible
Why don’t more players who are fully committed to college do this? Is it wiser to take the Bubba Starling route and check for an offer that blows you away, do they just want the thrill of being drafted out of high school?
Because saying you want to go to college is one thing, actually having the money in front of you and turning it down is another thing entirely.
I was completely unaware that baseball actually had an official draft pool that players had to register for.
It’s been around since 2012 I believe. Similar to the international player registration. There is a domestic player registration as well
Why anyone would chose football over baseball in this situation is beyond me. Guaranteed contracts paired with virtually no concussion or career-ending injury risk? Sign me up!
Maybe he just hates riding the bus like all those poor minor leaguers have to.
Also why he didn’t come to UT still drives me crazy but that’s a discussion for another blog.
His father, Kevin was one of the best QB’s ever at A&M. I guess the Aggies came up with a better package than UT. Kevin got a new car out of it. He had signed a pro baseball contract but that didn’t work out so he went back and played football for the Ags.
He’s from Texas, I figure it has something to do with the Church of Football. One of my friend’s kid is a real special baseball talent, but he likes golf better so that’s what he’s doing in college. Boggles the mind, but the kid is happy.
Who says he cares about money? Why does every man’s life choice judged by dollar signs? Jesh
He also said concussions and injuries.
Maintaining my cognitive abilities is more important in my book.
As one poster said, it’s not only money, but health as well. I can also say in my experience money wasn’t nearly as important to me as an 18 year old as it is now in my mid 30’s with a wife and kids to take care of. If football doesn’t work, I hope this kid doesn’t beat himself up too bad about what could have been.
Probably a quicker path to the NFL. Maybe he just likes football better.
From the article at Baseball America:
“All top 200 prospects are required to take a drug test and submit
medical reports. Players who chose not to do so are ineligible to be
drafted and cannot sign as nondrafted free agents after the draft.”
Is this new for this year? I remember when the Aiken thing broke down, there was talk that teams should have access to a player’s medicals before the draft to make a better selection. Or was it because the UCL wasn’t actually torn yet that it never came up on a medical report?
Great question. As I recall it, he did a physical after being drafted that was done by Houston’s medical staff and they found his UCL to be abnormally small and lowered their offer. What is curious is the extent of the medicals reports that need to be submitted, is it just a basic medical history with vaccines, or is the medical reports from a full on physical with mri’s that the kids must pay for?
Unless I am confusing him with someone else, I thought that the reason the Astro’s started backpedalling was because his UCL was small and caused concern. They learned that from an MRI.
It’s not new, it’s a medical report not a full physical. Teams still do physicals after drafting a guy. Teams are saying MLB should do a full physical on these players and have the information available. It cost money and tiime so I don’t see it happening any time soon. Teams cannot do physicals before drafting a guy
Somebody should have told him to look at Zack Lee. When Lee is starting at QB for LSU when he’s 25 if he’ll wonder if he made the wrong decision.
Whatever the A&M alumni are paying, I guess MLB can’t compete.
You get the millions, can’t hit the curveball, and THEN go to college and win your Heisman. When you’re collecting safe interest higher than the average US working citizen is making.
It doesn’t work so well in the other direction, especially when large SEC humans’ scholarships depend on trying to end your functional athleticism every Saturday for 3-4 years.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Zach Lee ends up playing QB at LSU. If he isn’t in LA’s rotation by the end of next season, I could see it
Just my opinion, but Murray should not limit himself to football at Texas A&M (not that this is his initial plan, but if he wins the QB job he will eventually face this decision). He’s only about 5’9, and the odds are stacked against him in the NFL.